Biofuels are widely seen as substitutes for fossil fuels to offset the imminent decline of oil production and to mitigate the emergent increase in GHG emissions. This view is, however, based on too simple an analysis, focusing on only one piece in the whole mosaic of the complex biofuel...

Input–output tables (IOTs) are widely used in several types of analyses. Although born in an economic context, IOTs are increasingly used for the environmental impact assessment of product systems, e.g. in environmental policy analysis, and for several others such as the accounting of...

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a form of chain analysis in which structural pathways in the economic system are delineated and connected to environmental problems. As such, it can be seen as an extension of, or a complement to, energy analysis. The main developments over the past 30 years are...

type="main" <title type="main">Summary</title> <p>This article presents a general framework for macroenvironmental assessment, combining life cycle assessment (LCA) with the IPAT equation, and explores its combination with decomposition analysis to assess the multidimensional contribution of technological innovation to...</p>

This paper aims at reviewing the life cycle assessment (LCA) literature on second generation bioethanol based on lignocellulosic biomass and at identifying issues to be resolved for good LCA practice. Reviews are carried out on respective LCA studies published over the last six years. We use the...

Sustainability assessments can play an important role in decision making. This role starts with selecting appropriate methods for a given situation. We observed that scientists, consultants, and decision-makers often do not systematically perform a problem analyses that guides the choice of the...

The intensity of international transactions remains lower than could be potentially justified on the basis of transportation costs alone. This has become known as the ?mystery of the missing trade?. Transaction costs may be responsible for ?under-trading? across national borders. More...

Structural funds are the most intensively used policy instrument by the European Union to promote economic growth in its member states and to speed up the process of convergence. This paper empirically explores the effectiveness of European Structural Funds by means of a panel data analysis for...

D<sc>e</sc> D<sc>ominicis</sc> L., A<sc>rbia</sc> G. and D<sc>e</sc> G<sc>root</sc> H. L. F. Concentration of manufacturing and service sector activities in Italy: accounting for spatial dependence and firm size distribution, <italic>Regional Studies</italic>. Empirical analysis of the spatial distribution of economic activity on a discrete space is based...